The second round of our quads saw a pair of upsets in Group 1, with Yang Hu taking down Cesar Tamondong and Andy Shih dispatching yours truly in a tough game, one in which I had an advantage in the middlegame, only to stumble in time trouble near the end (a familiar refrain in these 30-minute games). David Bajot and Cary Kletter sit atop Group 2 with 1.5 points after drawing their game, there is a 3-way tie for first in Group 3 with one postponed game (in yellow, below) and mighty Viyan Vijay took control of Group 4 with a second win. We also had 5-6 people playing blitz and bughouse in our skittles room while the tournament round was in progress, so there are games to be had even if you’re not interested in tournament play.
Note that a couple of our younger members were a little boisterous after their games in this round, something I was unable to control effectively given I was also playing and which impacted a few other players, so this may be the last rated event I both direct and play in for a while (I participate as a “house” player if there is an odd number of entrants, to make certain everyone gets a game each round). Noise shouldn’t be an ongoing problem if I’m serving solely as a tournament director, something I’m more than happy to do, and we may also consider moving a few of the games which typically end earliest to the skittles room to curb the impacts of the occasional outburst.
Next Wednesday is the final round of the quads, with a makeup round the following week, then we’ll likely hold another unrated blitz tournament on May 25th if there is interest. As always, please let me know if there are other events or activities you’d like the club to offer.
